NEW YORK — Barnes & Noble Inc. has ended for now its push to break up the largest U.S. bookstore chain after founder Leonard Riggio said he won’t bid for its retail stores and losses widened.

Riggio, 72, who is also Barnes & Noble’s chairman and largest shareholder, said in a filing Tuesday he would drop the plan he floated in February to buy its website and almost 680 stores. The shares plunged 12 percent to $14.61, erasing their gain for the year, as the company also reported a fiscal first-quarter loss that was bigger than analysts estimated.

Sales at the Nook unit, once the company’s grand hope for navigating from printed to digital books, declined 20 percent in a third straight drop.

“They are stuck between a rock and a hard place,” said Michael Souers, an analyst for Standard & Poor’s in New York. “If the company could get rid of the Nook business and its losses, it would become profitable again, but over the long term e-books will continue to garner market share from printed books. Longer term, that’s a losing business.”

The net loss in the quarter was $87 million, or $1.56 a share, compared with a loss of $39.8 million, or 76 cents, a year earlier, the New York-based company said Tuesday. The loss excluding some items was 86 cents. Analysts projected a loss of 67 cents, the average of six estimates.

More in Business

What do you do in a rental market where seemingly every new apartment building is offering a boatload of amenities and high-end finishes? If you're Charleston, S.C.-based apartment developer Greystar you double down and build an extra luxury project.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, who cruised to re-election in 2015, faces a referendum on growth and its impacts in his final re-election campaign. His three major challengers are promising new approaches.

Vail Resorts announced today in a news release that the company has entered into an agreement to purchase the ski fields at Falls Creek Alpine Resort (“Falls Creek”) and Hotham Alpine Resort (“Hotham”) in Victoria, Australia.